GURUGRAM: You may be able to spot a pond heron or a peacock at the DLF Golf & Country Club among other winged wonders but the main attraction will be the birdies that sink in the hole over the next four days.
As the $400,000 Hero Women's Indian Open tees off, all home attention is focused on Diksha Dagar, who is No. 4 on the Ladies European Tour merit list. The race to the finish line is "interesting" with second-placed Johanna Gustavsson and Thai rookie Trichat Cheenglab also vying for the top spot with four events to go. A runner-up place or a win here could see them leapfrog leader Celine Boutier, who passed on a ticket to ride.
While Swede Gustavsson shared her gameplan on being smart off the tees and negotiating the tricky greens wisely, Cheenglab, who played here in 2019 as an amateur invitee, promised to 'never use a driver here'. Diksha is relying on another kind of driver, her mother Sunita, on whom she is counting to reach the golf course in time despite "the crazy traffic". The unassuming 22-year-old has left her disappointment of not being selected for the Asian Games behind and turned her head to the task a t hand - unravelling the mystery of the Gary Player Black Knight course which has been a bit unkind to her. "My short game has not been up to the mark here," she said.
Travelling around Europe and the world, Diksha has been building her confidence this year with her triumph at the Czech Ladies Open and six top-10 finishes, but there is something about this unique course that baffles her. "On other courses, you may have one aspect which is troubling, you can have a comfort zone. You must be precise in all aspects of the game here. I have been lacking in course management so I have to plan accordingly."
She has been ticking the list, taking her European friends out for 'non-spicy fare' as she sticks to plant-based food. The inspiration is her tennis hero Novak Djokovic. "I changed my diet four months back and it has worked for me," said the beaming local, who has also benefited from a change of equipment recently.
It's a different approach for in-form Gustavsson, who at 3 0 has lost count of her battles with the immediate environs. "What I've changed this year is probably my mental approach. Last year I was fed up at the end of the year. I played a lot of tournaments coming to the end stretch. So I didn't really play well."
